Patterns of Childhood

Pattern(s) of Childhood (Kindheitsmuster) is a novel by the East German author Christa Wolf, published by the Aufbau-Verlag in 1976. In a series of internal monologues, the narrator reveals her thoughts as she travels to Poland to visit the places where she had grown up under National Socialism. Its theme is the German culture of remembering, selectively remembering, or forgetting the horrors of the Nazi regime.

The German title could be either singular (the pattern of a childhood) or plural (childhood patterns), but Wolf later indicated she had intended it as singular. The English translation by Ursule Molinaro and Hedwig Rappolt appeared in 1980 under the erroneous title A model childhood, but it was later reissued as Patterns of childhood.